Hanging Out at Dan's

The Amazing Masaki-Man

You also would like to see an example of the sort of
position in which reading isn't much use. This will
involve me in some homework.

What I'm looking for is a position with many candidate
plays, where it is hard to imagine solemnly choosing
amongst them on the basis of concrete variations
brought to a firm conclusion. That's not the usual
characterisation of a complicated or sharp position:
where it may be difficult to bring enough of one's
analysis to definite judgements of outcome, but doing
so, at least partially, is the only basis for action.

This is the opening position I come up with, on the
basis of some research of my own. Surprisingly, perhaps,
the intense study of the Go openings doesn't reach
expression in codified opening theory, at least as
offered to the general public in book form. What we have
here is up to move 9 in a perfectly normal Three Stars
(Japanese sanrensei) opening. White's next play,
judged by professional games, might be at one of the 11
points marked 'x'.

Well, this may appear undramatic. For the most part
the candidates are on the left-hand side of the board.
So far Black has a framework expanding north and west
from the lower right corner. White similarly has a
more vague framework based around the upper left. The
majority of the options under consideration build it
up on the left, or contest the ground on the lower
side where there is an obvious gap or no-man's-land
between the claims of the two players. A couple of the
suggested plays invade in the lower right corner. These
might have been experiments: there is a groundswell
in commentaries against getting closely involved in
fighting too early, when there are good development
points to be had elsewhere.

To fulfil my pledge, and bring out the distinctive
character of this type of position, I really need to
convince you of several general points:

Having more than 10 candidate plays to think about in a position
is hard work, and the way this game has started means the effort
is going to have to persist for a while.

That is partly because of the no-contact policies both players
are pursuing. Contact plays lead to settled positions and the
resolution of issues.

It is most unlikely that the game will pass from a state where
it is too early to invade directly into a condition where invasions
are too late; no one is assuming that the frameworks on the board
are going to be solidified into uncontested territories.

To avoid being terminally diffuse, let's have some
particular variations.

White 1 takes up position on the left side, making a
Three Stars formation to match Black's. Black 2 as shown
can support immediate development into the centre, if
Black wants to jump up; and avoids being flattened out
(as Black does to White by playing at E). Here Black
can also try any of A up to G. You can say that further
plays by White and Black build up the picture, but
resolve little. The number of possible invasions left
around the board remains something like a dozen.

Another representative variation. White plays for
territory on the lower side. Black 2 would be a way to
emphasise the centre. Black's other options at A to D
are different ways of dealing with the left side, now
clearly the largest open space on the board.

Go wasn't and isn't always played this way. Other
strategies are more systematically acquisitive; you
could even say that no mainstream opening idea is less
concerned with taking territory upfront. The Three Stars
formation was born in the 1930s, to the accompaniment of
a great deal of fuss; and has always remained somewhat
controversial. Its great champion in recent times has
been Takemiya Masaki, one of the great 9 dans and
innovators.

Takemiya's play has been described as "mazy". He himself
has said that he enjoys positions where he has no idea
where his opponent will play next. This is a definitive
comment against using reading to predict the course
of the game, though not against its value to check
out contingencies. Takemiya steers for such foggy
battlegrounds both with Black and White.